WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that his administration had grounded the Boeing 737 Max 8 planes involved in two catastrophic crashes, hours after the United States became the last country to do so.

“Those planes are grounded effective immediately,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “The safety of the American people, of all people, is our paramount concern.”

The United States was the last holdout on grounding the aircraft after Canada on Wednesday joined a growing list of nations that included China, Britain, France and Germany to make the call following an Ethiopian Airlines crash on Sunday that killed 157 people.

The Federal Aviation Administration previously stood by the safety of the plane, saying it hadn’t found any issues to merit a grounding order. In a statement issued after Trump’s remarks, the FAA said the administration was reversing course based on “the data gathering process and new evidence collected at the site.”